Inclusion - Julie Amoroso Rather than thinking about how useful inclusion may or may not be to us in our role as SLMS, let's look at how useful the school library is to the inclusive class: Technology in the library can be used to enhance development and function in children with disabilities. Computers and technology provide ways for children with disabilities to communicate and interact on a more equal level with children who have no disabilities. It also helps them to function as independently as possible. For children whose mobility is limited, email and other Internet tools focus on the content of the communications rather than personality or physical attributes, so that students can interact as equals without the encumbrances which sometimes isolate them, such as wheelchairs, canes or physical appearance. (Tech Inclusion, 2010)
••••••••••••
Ronnie Farrell - synthesis Question #1
SLMS' are in a unique situation in which they work in an environment that can lend itself to all five of the teaching methodologies that we have studied whereas a high school or middle school classroom teacher has a full schedule of classes in which he/she only has 42 minutes to teach the lesson, which does not leave a lot of time to implement teaching strategies that will satisfy the needs of each individual student. As a SLMS, the five teaching methodologies will be very useful for teaching information literacy due to the array of options available
to students in the LMC such as databases, online encyclopedias and many other print resources on any subject that students may be researching. Following are my thoughts on each of the methodologies: Inclusion: In an inclusive arena all students are given the opportunity not only to learn but to access information equally. The SLMS will provide print material in an assortment of reading levels and will also provide ready access to databases in a variety of grade levels through the school's virtual reference collection; discussing these available resources with the special education teacher that works with the inclusive class on a daily basis. Cooperative Learning: The SLMS can create a lesson using a "jigsaw" learning strategy, where students work in groups and depend on each other to learn the whole lesson. Students are responsible to individually learn a certain segment of the lesson, returning to the group to share their new knowledge. While learning the subject matter students are also learning valuable social skills that will be useful throughout their lives. Differentiated Instruction: The SLMS can use the teaching methodology of differentiated instruction to guide student learning in various ways, zeroing in on the individual student and the teaching/learning method that will best enhance that student's experience and understanding of the subject matter. Problem-based Learning: Problem-based learning can be used by the SLMS to create a lesson plan that will actively engage students in the learning process, while fostering social skills. Each student will be an active participant in a group. Students will determine what the path to a solution may be, working together to get to get to that solution. This can be a very different learning experience for students and is an excellent way to get each student actively involved in library research. Multiple Intelligences: The LMC that has been structured as a "learning commons" is the perfect environment for the instructional methodology of multiple intelligences. There are many choices within the LMC to accommodate each different intelligence: databases, Websites, a variety of print material, and Playaways (the newest audiobook). Students are free to learn utilizing resources that will enhance their individual learning style, so that an optimal educational experience will be achieved. Question #2
Having graduated high school in 1980, I did not attend school at a time when any of these methodologies were put into practice. The "special ed" students were always segregated from "regular ed" students. The only recollection that I have of special ed students is having seen them together in the cafeteria during lunch periods. I am not even sure where in the building their classroom was. There was no integration or teaching of tolerance.
After having been through my local school district with my own children, researching these methodologies for this project, and looking back at my own educational experience, I now wish that I had grown up during a time where inclusion (in the broad sense of the word) was an integral part of the educational system. I believe that all students would have benefited from the experience and would have learned on multiple levels educationally and socially.
••••••••••••
Anne Johnson
Sample group response. Cooperative Learning
The methodology of cooperative learning is very useful in the school library. When the information research process is applied in a cooperative manner, students of varying levels of learning ability assist each other in gathering evidence, classifying it, referencing it and sharing it. Each member of the group contributes to the final project, and then describes their successes and failures in the information search processs. The school library is the perfect place for utilizing this method, with its access to multiple sources and its big tables with plenty of room for group projects. In the school librarian's role as instructional partner, this methodology requires collaboration with the classroom teacher. In the information specialist role, the school librarian utilizing cooperative learning must address the library's collection, ensuring diverse sources for students and ample professional texts for their teachers. Anne remembers being in a program called the "interdisciplinary Program" (ID) in junior high that was built upon the model of cooperative learning. Students rotated an English, Social Studies or Science class during first period, and then were to work on group projects for the next two periods. It was fun for the students, but Anne isn't sure just how much learning took place...The program phased out a few years after that first experimental group moved on to high school. Differentiated Instruction
Differentiation stems from the belief that different students learn differently, and that the classroom teacher should: first, know what works for each student (by learning about the student both academically and personally); and second, plan varied approaches to the curriculum and assessments. Teachers can differentiate the content of the curriculum, the process by which it is taught, and the product used for demonsstrating mastery. Teachers may be also able to differentiate the environment of the classroom by creating centers, quiet corners, technology stations, etc. Differentiation is a way of life for the school librarian. Familiarity with the library's collection will ensure that the librarian can enable each student to get the most out of the resources available to them. Acting as instructional partners, school librarians can collaborate with teachers to design differentiated lessons and assessments. As information specialist, the librarian can create various physical spaces for group and individual study, and design virtual spaces for online study, support and self-evaluation. In her work as a teaching assistant Anne witnesses teachers differentiating every day, even though some of them may not think of themselves as doing so. Maybe a small group goes to the back table to work on extra math problems, or handouts are provided for when assigned work is finished early. Multiple Intelligences
The methodology of multiple intelligences (different learners use different intelligences to learn, retain and share information) allows for a robust exchange of information between and among school librarians, students and teachers. It takes advantage of the school library's strengths - including flexible hours, group work, the use of various media and digital information, and even quiet solitary reflection. It challenges the school librarian to broaden the library's collection, and encourages leadership in order to utilize this technique within the curriculum. Therefore, it is extremely useful in the school library. It, too, encourages collaboration between librarians and teachers when planning lessons and projects. In their role as teacher-librarian, school librarians can strive to recognize the different intelligences students are exhibiting, and work to support them by highlighting different sections of the library's collection and/or online resources. As information specialist, the librarian can maintain a professional collection with ample information about this intriguing methodology. Even though this is a relatively new methodology, Anne believes many teachers have been intuitively teaching towards multiple intellegences for years. Inclusion
Inclusion is best thought of as a belief system, not just a set of strategies. Inclusion considers that all students are full members of the school community and are entitled to the opportunities and responsibilities that are available to all students in the school Inclusive classrooms encourage full participation by students with disabilities, and often incorporate cooperative learning, differentiated instruction and multiple intelligence methodologies throughout the day. The librarian who is teaching information skills to an inclusion class often makes use of peer tutoring and cooperative learning. School librarians collaborate with special education teachers to plan content and adapt worksheets and other materials to suit individual needs. As information specialist, the school librarian should always keep inclusion in mind when working on collection development, keeping audio books and other assisted technologies on hand. A welcoming and physically accessible library environment, with access to information technology and electronic information sources, can have a significant effect on the development of confidence, indepence and self-esteem in students with learning disabilities. Certainly, Anne has seen much more empathy for these students in her own children, for whom inclusion is no big deal, than she remembers in her peers all those years ago. Problem-Based Learning
Problem-based learning is inquiry learning, wherein students are presented with a problem they must first clearly define. They then set about investigating, researching and writing up solutions for the problem. Finally, they present their conclusions and review their performance. This methodology is very useful to the school librarian. As instructional partner, the librarian can collaborate with the content area teacher to develop the problem, and then provide access to databases, websites or print material. The librarian can also provide instruction in the use of information such as how to find it, evaluate it and extract meaning from it. Students involved in this type of inquiry-based, collaborative learning are building information literacy skills which will enable them to become life-long learners. That ID program that Anne was in throughout junior high utilized this methodology. Maybe it did set some students on a path to life-long learning, but at Anne's junior high, it could have used more teacher (and librarian, although the library was under-utilized) supervision and guidance.
••••••••••••
Synthesis - Linda McManus
My experience as a classroom teacher has given me some insight to a couple of the methodologies discussed in this wiki.
Inclusion- As Julie states, the idea of inclusion is really more of a philosophy about meeting the rights of all individuals when it comes to education, regardless of their abilities or disablities. As an alternative to Universal design, I have seen teacher aids assigned to students with disabilities which allows them to participate in an inclusive classroom environment with the opportunity to succeed. One benefit of inclusion that I have seen is that the general population of children learn to accept students with disabilities much more so than years ago. This has been exemplified in 2 separate recent news stories of students with severe disablities, like down syndrome, being elected by their student body for homecoming queen and king - can you imagine that happening 30 years ago! It just goes to show how far we've come as compared to when I was a child and students like these children were separated from their peers.
Differentiated Instruction and Multiple Intelligences - Differentiated instruction which also helps these students has become more commonplace as well and should be used in just about every classroom, regardless of academic level, due to the variety of learning styles possessed by students, as illustrated by Gardiner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. This is also something that has changed over the years; when I was a student in the 1960's and 70's, I did not experience this at all; however, I find that most diligient teachers, regardless of the academic level of students, will differentiate their lessons in some way due to a variety of learning styles.
Cooperative Learning - In terms of cooperative learning, in theory, I think it's a great idea because it engages all students and helps teach them communication and collaboration skills which are defintely needed for lifelong work and learning. However, in practice, I have found that this type of instruction works best with high performing, motivated students in homogenous settings. (Here I am talking about high school.) Classes with a heterogenous mix of students don't like it because they are not open to working with people they don't consider their friends, and unmotivated students who are not worried about their grade have no problem in holding up the rest of their group. It takes alot of different strategies and assessment tools to be used by the teacher, which can be cumbersome and exhausting to implement, to get the group to work cooperatively together. Having said that, however, I do thing that these skills of working together and collaborating are important skills to learn. I also think that the school library media center is in a unique situtation to do this because of the variety of media that is present, the novelty of the environment which may assist students in being more open-minded since they are out of their ordinary routine, and if it inquiry based, hopefully that will make it more engaging also. For the same reason, I think the library lends itself to differentiation, inclusion and mulitple intelligences because of the variety of media and materials which is provided.
Problem-based Learning - I have not had any experience in problem-based learning, however, either in my own education throughout the years, or in my teaching career. However, the idea of presenting a problem and researching information on it in order to present and reflect upon is timely given the information age that we live in and lends itself particuarly well to the school library media due to the variety of sources that should be available.
I think that all of these methodologies and philosophies are appropriate for any eduational setting due to the inclusive and collaborative opportunities that are provided, but in particular, the SLMC is the place to teach and advocate for 21st Century skills which are supported through these in one way or another.
•••••••••••••••••
Richard Law Synthesis of Expert Reports
Concerning the Instructional Methodologies that we have researched my personal response has four main points:
1- Inclusion is unique because to some extent it is mandated. With that said I think it offers a valuable learning experience to both students with and without special needs. To some extent the students without special needs are the main beneficiary because they grow intellectually and personally in a way they did not expect.
2- I feel the the remain four methodologies are all somewhat very similar at there core and that they, give and take, share and borrow techniques, sensibilities and goals from each other.
3- I feel that the Library Media Center and the Library media Specialist are uniquely positioned to support, suggest and foster these methodologies. This has to do with our innate characteristic of flexibility. We can provide learning outside the classroom curriculum, in flexible hours, serve individuals or groups, and may have staff that can " float" to meet student and teacher needs. In general it seems that because of the need for assessment in almost every case, we would be woking in conjunction with a classroom teacher.
4- I believe that these methodologies should be considered as tools in our LMS "tool box" By knowing these we are able to suggest and incorporate these as situations arise. It could be to an individual student who is "stuck" or has the potential to "take it " to the next level. We might be working with a teacher that needs a suggestion to motivate a class or is looking to "mix it up" with something different.
I have no real memory of these playing any significant role in my education. I could strain to think that in kindergarten and first grade, playing with blocks, singing songs and such I had some exposure to these concepts. Later in High School, we did form study groups for final exams which did use some of these principles.
In review of my colleagues expert reports some points that resonate with my sensibilities are:
Inclusion -- As Julie mentions … "Computers and technology provide ways for children with disabilities to communicate and interact on a more equal level with children who have no disabilities. (Tech Inclusion, 2010) "
I also identified with her summary …
" There are many ways in which the school library can contribute to the personal growth of students with disabilities and in fostering acceptance and understanding of these students by their non-disabled peers. A four year study of school library provisions for students with disabilities showed that provision of effective information literacy programs, a welcoming and physically accessible library environment and access to information technology and electronic information sources can have a significant effect on the development of confidence, independence and self-esteem in these students. (IFLA, 2010). "
Cooperative Learning As Ronnie mentions …. from Daniel Callison in his article, is that the media center becomes “not only a place for information, but one of several places for constructive conversations."
I also felt her mention of the five components below noteworthy:
According to David and Roger Johnson, co-researchers and writers on cooperative learning, there are five basic components that must be in place for “circles of learning” to be successful.
1. Positive Interdependence. 2. Promotive (face-to-face) interaction. 3. Individual accountability. 4. Interpersonal and small-group skills. 5. Group processing. (Callison, 1997)
Differentiated Instruction Anne indicates ... " To put it yet another way, it means that teachers proactively plan varied approaches to what students need to learn, how they will learn it, and/or how they will show what they have learned in order to increase the likelihood that each student will learn as much as he or she can, as efficiently as possible (Tomlinson, 2003).”
She also mentions ... In the classroom, there are “different avenues to acquiring content, to processing or making sense of ideas, and to developing products so that each student can learn” (Tomlinson, 2001)."
I tend to agree that this is a classroom / class teacher methodology and my opinion is that the LMC and LMS can play a valuable role in support of such.
Problem-based Learning Two comments that Linda made which I support are:
" … according to David Chapman, Associate Dean of Arts and Science at Samford University (PBL) boils down to two reasons: 1) Because of the information explosion that we are experiencing due to tremendous advances in technology, traditional means of education are no longer adequate, and 2) Due to the changing nature of the way the world works, it is important for students to learn how to work with one another and learn skills which will be useful throughout their lives (Rehm, 2001).
And taken from her conclusion …
There are a variety of roles that the school librarian can play in using this methodology. First of all as an instructional partner, the librarian can collaborate with the content area teacher to develop the problem. The librarian will also provide the materials which will be used for research. This can be done by providing access to data bases, web-sites or print material. Thirdly, the librarian can provide instruction in the use of information such as how to find it, evaluate it, and extract meaning from it.
Multiple Intelligence Related to Multiple intelligence's perhaps the most succinct observation that I made was related to how it impacts the collection, as I stated:
"MI challenges us to broaden our collection to include materials that support the seven different types of learning, assessment and sharing styles that constitute MI … Clearly we need to add to, and maintain in, our collections not only books but audio recordings, play-aways, dvd's, author visit's, xbox based educational games, computer simulations, Kindels, iPads and additional "out of the box" circulation materials now and in the future."
Rather than thinking about how useful inclusion may or may not be to us in our role as SLMS, let's look at how useful the school library is to the inclusive class: Technology in the library can be used to enhance development and function in children with disabilities. Computers and technology provide ways for children with disabilities to communicate and interact on a more equal level with children who have no disabilities. It also helps them to function as independently as possible. For children whose mobility is limited, email and other Internet tools focus on the content of the communications rather than personality or physical attributes, so that students can interact as equals without the encumbrances which sometimes isolate them, such as wheelchairs, canes or physical appearance. (Tech Inclusion, 2010)
••••••••••••
Ronnie Farrell - synthesis
Question #1
SLMS' are in a unique situation in which they work in an environment that can lend itself to all five of the teaching methodologies that we have studied whereas a high school or middle school classroom teacher has a full schedule of classes in which he/she only has 42 minutes to teach the lesson, which does not leave a lot of time to implement teaching strategies that will satisfy the needs of each individual student. As a SLMS, the five teaching methodologies will be very useful for teaching information literacy due to the array of options available
to students in the LMC such as databases, online encyclopedias and many other print resources on any subject that students may be researching. Following are my thoughts on each of the methodologies:
Inclusion: In an inclusive arena all students are given the opportunity not only to learn but to access information equally. The SLMS will provide print material in an assortment of reading levels and will also provide ready access to databases in a variety of grade levels through the school's virtual reference collection; discussing these available resources with the special education teacher that works with the inclusive class on a daily basis.
Cooperative Learning: The SLMS can create a lesson using a "jigsaw" learning strategy, where students work in groups and depend on each other to learn the whole lesson. Students are responsible to individually learn a certain segment of the lesson, returning to the group to share their new knowledge. While learning the subject matter students are also learning valuable social skills that will be useful throughout their lives.
Differentiated Instruction: The SLMS can use the teaching methodology of differentiated instruction to guide student learning in various ways, zeroing in on the individual student and the teaching/learning method that will best enhance that student's experience and understanding of the subject matter.
Problem-based Learning: Problem-based learning can be used by the SLMS to create a lesson plan that will actively engage students in the learning process, while fostering social skills. Each student will be an active participant in a group. Students will determine what the path to a solution may be, working together to get to get to that solution. This can be a very different learning experience for students and is an excellent way to get each student actively involved in library research.
Multiple Intelligences: The LMC that has been structured as a "learning commons" is the perfect environment for the instructional methodology of multiple intelligences. There are many choices within the LMC to accommodate each different intelligence: databases, Websites, a variety of print material, and Playaways (the newest audiobook). Students are free to learn utilizing resources that will enhance their individual learning style, so that an optimal educational experience will be achieved.
Question #2
Having graduated high school in 1980, I did not attend school at a time when any of these methodologies were put into practice. The "special ed" students were always segregated from "regular ed" students. The only recollection that I have of special ed students is having seen them together in the cafeteria during lunch periods. I am not even sure where in the building their classroom was. There was no integration or teaching of tolerance.
After having been through my local school district with my own children, researching these methodologies for this project, and looking back at my own educational experience, I now wish that I had grown up during a time where inclusion (in the broad sense of the word) was an integral part of the educational system. I believe that all students would have benefited from the experience and would have learned on multiple levels educationally and socially.
••••••••••••
Anne Johnson
Sample group response.
Cooperative Learning
The methodology of cooperative learning is very useful in the school library. When the information research process is applied in a cooperative manner, students of varying levels of learning ability assist each other in gathering evidence, classifying it, referencing it and sharing it. Each member of the group contributes to the final project, and then describes their successes and failures in the information search processs. The school library is the perfect place for utilizing this method, with its access to multiple sources and its big tables with plenty of room for group projects. In the school librarian's role as instructional partner, this methodology requires collaboration with the classroom teacher. In the information specialist role, the school librarian utilizing cooperative learning must address the library's collection, ensuring diverse sources for students and ample professional texts for their teachers. Anne remembers being in a program called the "interdisciplinary Program" (ID) in junior high that was built upon the model of cooperative learning. Students rotated an English, Social Studies or Science class during first period, and then were to work on group projects for the next two periods. It was fun for the students, but Anne isn't sure just how much learning took place...The program phased out a few years after that first experimental group moved on to high school.
Differentiated Instruction
Differentiation stems from the belief that different students learn differently, and that the classroom teacher should: first, know what works for each student (by learning about the student both academically and personally); and second, plan varied approaches to the curriculum and assessments. Teachers can differentiate the content of the curriculum, the process by which it is taught, and the product used for demonsstrating mastery. Teachers may be also able to differentiate the environment of the classroom by creating centers, quiet corners, technology stations, etc. Differentiation is a way of life for the school librarian. Familiarity with the library's collection will ensure that the librarian can enable each student to get the most out of the resources available to them. Acting as instructional partners, school librarians can collaborate with teachers to design differentiated lessons and assessments. As information specialist, the librarian can create various physical spaces for group and individual study, and design virtual spaces for online study, support and self-evaluation. In her work as a teaching assistant Anne witnesses teachers differentiating every day, even though some of them may not think of themselves as doing so. Maybe a small group goes to the back table to work on extra math problems, or handouts are provided for when assigned work is finished early.
Multiple Intelligences
The methodology of multiple intelligences (different learners use different intelligences to learn, retain and share information) allows for a robust exchange of information between and among school librarians, students and teachers. It takes advantage of the school library's strengths - including flexible hours, group work, the use of various media and digital information, and even quiet solitary reflection. It challenges the school librarian to broaden the library's collection, and encourages leadership in order to utilize this technique within the curriculum. Therefore, it is extremely useful in the school library. It, too, encourages collaboration between librarians and teachers when planning lessons and projects. In their role as teacher-librarian, school librarians can strive to recognize the different intelligences students are exhibiting, and work to support them by highlighting different sections of the library's collection and/or online resources. As information specialist, the librarian can maintain a professional collection with ample information about this intriguing methodology. Even though this is a relatively new methodology, Anne believes many teachers have been intuitively teaching towards multiple intellegences for years.
Inclusion
Inclusion is best thought of as a belief system, not just a set of strategies. Inclusion considers that all students are full members of the school community and are entitled to the opportunities and responsibilities that are available to all students in the school Inclusive classrooms encourage full participation by students with disabilities, and often incorporate cooperative learning, differentiated instruction and multiple intelligence methodologies throughout the day. The librarian who is teaching information skills to an inclusion class often makes use of peer tutoring and cooperative learning. School librarians collaborate with special education teachers to plan content and adapt worksheets and other materials to suit individual needs. As information specialist, the school librarian should always keep inclusion in mind when working on collection development, keeping audio books and other assisted technologies on hand. A welcoming and physically accessible library environment, with access to information technology and electronic information sources, can have a significant effect on the development of confidence, indepence and self-esteem in students with learning disabilities. Certainly, Anne has seen much more empathy for these students in her own children, for whom inclusion is no big deal, than she remembers in her peers all those years ago.
Problem-Based Learning
Problem-based learning is inquiry learning, wherein students are presented with a problem they must first clearly define. They then set about investigating, researching and writing up solutions for the problem. Finally, they present their conclusions and review their performance. This methodology is very useful to the school librarian. As instructional partner, the librarian can collaborate with the content area teacher to develop the problem, and then provide access to databases, websites or print material. The librarian can also provide instruction in the use of information such as how to find it, evaluate it and extract meaning from it. Students involved in this type of inquiry-based, collaborative learning are building information literacy skills which will enable them to become life-long learners. That ID program that Anne was in throughout junior high utilized this methodology. Maybe it did set some students on a path to life-long learning, but at Anne's junior high, it could have used more teacher (and librarian, although the library was under-utilized) supervision and guidance.
••••••••••••
Synthesis - Linda McManus
My experience as a classroom teacher has given me some insight to a couple of the methodologies discussed in this wiki.
Inclusion - As Julie states, the idea of inclusion is really more of a philosophy about meeting the rights of all individuals when it comes to education, regardless of their abilities or disablities. As an alternative to Universal design, I have seen teacher aids assigned to students with disabilities which allows them to participate in an inclusive classroom environment with the opportunity to succeed. One benefit of inclusion that I have seen is that the general population of children learn to accept students with disabilities much more so than years ago. This has been exemplified in 2 separate recent news stories of students with severe disablities, like down syndrome, being elected by their student body for homecoming queen and king - can you imagine that happening 30 years ago! It just goes to show how far we've come as compared to when I was a child and students like these children were separated from their peers.
Differentiated Instruction and Multiple Intelligences - Differentiated instruction which also helps these students has become more commonplace as well and should be used in just about every classroom, regardless of academic level, due to the variety of learning styles possessed by students, as illustrated by Gardiner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. This is also something that has changed over the years; when I was a student in the 1960's and 70's, I did not experience this at all; however, I find that most diligient teachers, regardless of the academic level of students, will differentiate their lessons in some way due to a variety of learning styles.
Cooperative Learning - In terms of cooperative learning, in theory, I think it's a great idea because it engages all students and helps teach them communication and collaboration skills which are defintely needed for lifelong work and learning. However, in practice, I have found that this type of instruction works best with high performing, motivated students in homogenous settings. (Here I am talking about high school.) Classes with a heterogenous mix of students don't like it because they are not open to working with people they don't consider their friends, and unmotivated students who are not worried about their grade have no problem in holding up the rest of their group. It takes alot of different strategies and assessment tools to be used by the teacher, which can be cumbersome and exhausting to implement, to get the group to work cooperatively together. Having said that, however, I do thing that these skills of working together and collaborating are important skills to learn. I also think that the school library media center is in a unique situtation to do this because of the variety of media that is present, the novelty of the environment which may assist students in being more open-minded since they are out of their ordinary routine, and if it inquiry based, hopefully that will make it more engaging also. For the same reason, I think the library lends itself to differentiation, inclusion and mulitple intelligences because of the variety of media and materials which is provided.
Problem-based Learning - I have not had any experience in problem-based learning, however, either in my own education throughout the years, or in my teaching career. However, the idea of presenting a problem and researching information on it in order to present and reflect upon is timely given the information age that we live in and lends itself particuarly well to the school library media due to the variety of sources that should be available.
I think that all of these methodologies and philosophies are appropriate for any eduational setting due to the inclusive and collaborative opportunities that are provided, but in particular, the SLMC is the place to teach and advocate for 21st Century skills which are supported through these in one way or another.
•••••••••••••••••
Richard Law
Synthesis of Expert Reports
Concerning the Instructional Methodologies that we have researched my personal response has four main points:
1- Inclusion is unique because to some extent it is mandated. With that said I think it offers a valuable learning experience to both students with and without special needs. To some extent the students without special needs are the main beneficiary because they grow intellectually and personally in a way they did not expect.
2- I feel the the remain four methodologies are all somewhat very similar at there core and that they, give and take, share and borrow techniques, sensibilities and goals from each other.
3- I feel that the Library Media Center and the Library media Specialist are uniquely positioned to support, suggest and foster these methodologies. This has to do with our innate characteristic of flexibility. We can provide learning outside the classroom curriculum, in flexible hours, serve individuals or groups, and may have staff that can " float" to meet student and teacher needs. In general it seems that because of the need for assessment in almost every case, we would be woking in conjunction with a classroom teacher.
4- I believe that these methodologies should be considered as tools in our LMS "tool box" By knowing these we are able to suggest and incorporate these as situations arise. It could be to an individual student who is "stuck" or has the potential to "take it " to the next level. We might be working with a teacher that needs a suggestion to motivate a class or is looking to "mix it up" with something different.
I have no real memory of these playing any significant role in my education. I could strain to think that in kindergarten and first grade, playing with blocks, singing songs and such I had some exposure to these concepts. Later in High School, we did form study groups for final exams which did use some of these principles.
In review of my colleagues expert reports some points that resonate with my sensibilities are:
Inclusion --
As Julie mentions … "Computers and technology provide ways for children with disabilities to communicate and interact on a more equal level with children who have no disabilities. (Tech Inclusion, 2010) "
I also identified with her summary …
" There are many ways in which the school library can contribute to the personal growth of students with disabilities and in fostering acceptance and understanding of these students by their non-disabled peers. A four year study of school library provisions for students with disabilities showed that provision of effective information literacy programs, a welcoming and physically accessible library environment and access to information technology and electronic information sources can have a significant effect on the development of confidence, independence and self-esteem in these students. (IFLA, 2010). "
Cooperative Learning
As Ronnie mentions …. from Daniel Callison in his article, is that the media center becomes “not only a place for information, but one of several places for constructive conversations."
I also felt her mention of the five components below noteworthy:
According to David and Roger Johnson, co-researchers and writers on cooperative learning, there are five basic components that must be in place for “circles of learning” to be successful.
1. Positive Interdependence.
2. Promotive (face-to-face) interaction.
3. Individual accountability.
4. Interpersonal and small-group skills.
5. Group processing. (Callison, 1997)
Differentiated Instruction
Anne indicates ... " To put it yet another way, it means that teachers proactively plan varied approaches to what students need to learn, how they will learn it, and/or how they will show what they have learned in order to increase the likelihood that each student will learn as much as he or she can, as efficiently as possible (Tomlinson, 2003).”
She also mentions ... In the classroom, there are “different avenues to acquiring content, to processing or making sense of ideas, and to developing products so that each student can learn” (Tomlinson, 2001)."
I tend to agree that this is a classroom / class teacher methodology and my opinion is that the LMC and LMS can play a valuable role in support of such.
Problem-based Learning
Two comments that Linda made which I support are:
" … according to David Chapman, Associate Dean of Arts and Science at Samford University (PBL) boils down to two reasons: 1) Because of the information explosion that we are experiencing due to tremendous advances in technology, traditional means of education are no longer adequate, and 2) Due to the changing nature of the way the world works, it is important for students to learn how to work with one another and learn skills which will be useful throughout their lives (Rehm, 2001).
And taken from her conclusion …
There are a variety of roles that the school librarian can play in using this methodology. First of all as an instructional partner, the librarian can collaborate with the content area teacher to develop the problem. The librarian will also provide the materials which will be used for research. This can be done by providing access to data bases, web-sites or print material. Thirdly, the librarian can provide instruction in the use of information such as how to find it, evaluate it, and extract meaning from it.
Multiple Intelligence
Related to Multiple intelligence's perhaps the most succinct observation that I made was related to how it impacts the collection, as I stated:
"MI challenges us to broaden our collection to include materials that support the seven different types of learning, assessment and sharing styles that constitute MI … Clearly we need to add to, and maintain in, our collections not only books but audio recordings, play-aways, dvd's, author visit's, xbox based educational games, computer simulations, Kindels, iPads and additional "out of the box" circulation materials now and in the future."